Noseda hoping for rain at the Curragh Jeremy Noseda is hoping the forecast rain materialises at the Curragh as Soldier´s Tale prepares to take his chance in the Weatherbys Ireland Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday. The Newmarket trainer withdrew the Golden Jubilee winner from last week´s Duke of York because of fast ground and will not risk the seven-year-old on unsuitable going. He does, however, admit he is running out of time to get a prep race into the seven-year-old ahead a repeat victory bid for the Royal Ascot Group One in which got up to beat Australian´s super sprinter Takeover Target last June. "I think it all rests on a band of rain which is moving through into Ireland Wednesday night into Thursday," said the Newmarket trainer. "We will keep a close eye on that. Our plan isn´t to leave until Thursday evening so we´ll have an idea what is going on in Ireland. "If they are going to get the rain it is going to come in that 24 hours. "We will keep an eye on things from then and decide. If the ground looks like good or softer than good then of course we will be on our way. "If the ground doesn´t look right I´ve got a little bit of a headache. "Royal Ascot looms and I´ve only got one more option of giving him a prep race. "We´d have to do some racecourse gallops, but he´s a pretty straightforward horse and I´d be quietly confident even if that scenario came about where I couldn´t get him on the track. He´s a horse I feel I could get ready for Royal Ascot off work at home. "The other option is the seven-furlong Listed race which he ran in last year up at Haydock. "It´s possibly not ideal, he´d have a penalty as a Group One winner, but if the ground was right we could head up there and see if he comes round the bend a little bit better this year," Noseda told At The Races. The going is currently described as good to firm, firm in places with racecourse manager Paul Hensey also waiting to see how much rain falls before deciding whether or not to water. "There appears to be a bit of uncertainty at present regarding the amount of rain we can expect on Wednesday through Thursday," he said. "So we have decided that we will monitor the situation and make a decision on whether further watering is necessary when this weather system has passed through."
